Personal communication devices, such as cellular radiotelephones are becoming more versatile, and are being used for electronic tasks other than mere communication. Some of these additional tasks are using the communication device as an organizer or for game play, for example. However, many existing devices do not have the user interface to take full advantage of these applications. For example, with the addition of gaming to many personal communication devices, users are now looking for various addition means of interacting with the device. It would be of benefit to provide more articulate and accurate emulation of gaming movements on a radiotelephone.
Input devices for personal electronic devices are limited today to buttons, a stylus or pen, or a rotating mechanism (e.g. trackball, joystick, etc). These types of input devices do not accurately emulate the movement a person would make when playing electronic games. In addition, these input devices do not provide a measure for variable strength (asserted force) other than using time to measure the duration an input is held and correlating that to a strength (force) value.
An alternate solution is to use an external controller for the device, as are presently used for stand-alone gaming systems. Many devices support this option, but require modification for a RS232 port, USB port, etc. External controllers are more flexible and can provide more functionality, but they are generally expensive and larger than the communication device itself, which would be too bulky for a typical user. Moreover, an external controller accessory would add significant cost to the device.
Therefore, there is a need for variable strength input device for portable electronic devices. In particular, what is needed is an apparatus to directly translate an applied force as a signal to a gaming application. It would also be of benefit if a tactile force feedback can be supplied to the user of the device. It would also be an advantage to provide a mechanism that allows a user more than one degree of freedom of movement or force. Another advantage would be to provide a low cost implementation of a variable strength input device.